Crème brûlée
Cuisine: French
Author: Maria Kalenska
Prep time: 3 hrs 20 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 3 hrs 40 mins


Ingredients
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 200 g icing sugar
  • 800 ml double cream
  • seeds of 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • For the caramel crust:
  • 50 g icing sugar
Cooking method
  1. Heat the oven to 160˚С. Beat together the egg yolks and icing sugar until white. Set aside. Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthways. Scrape out the seeds from each half with a knife. Put the cream with vanilla pod and seeds or vanilla paste in a saucepan. Gently bring the cream to a simmer, but do not boil.
  2. Straining through a fine sieve, slowly pour the hot cream into the beaten egg yolks, stirring with a whisk as you do so. Transfer the mixture to a bain-marie and cook the custard whisking constantly. The custard should thicken considerably, but be still liquid, and a thin film should adhere to a metal spoon dipped into the custard.
  3. Pour the custard into ramekins. Place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin, and half-fill the tin with hot water. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The ready crème brûlée should wobble like a jelly.
  4. Chill the crème brûlée in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. During this time, it will cool completely. Before serving, sprinkle each crème brûlée with icing sugar or fine brown sugar, and caramelise with a blowtorch until golden brown. If you don’t have a blowtorch, then place crème brûlée under the grill. To do this, place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin, and half-fill the tin with cold water and ice cubes to prevent the crème brûlée from heating up.
My tips and tricks
If you still don't have special crème brûlée ramekins, I know the way out! You can use ordinary thick-walled porcelain or ceramic cups instead. And also, it will be much more convenient if you make the dessert the day before serving it and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

Maria Kalenska Gastronomy Blog | http://www.myodessacuisine.com/recipes/creme-brulee/